Nightmare on Abracadabra Street
by downtimexdamage
Summary: NOT AF, I know, but this was as close as I could get:: A year later, and the Supernaturalists have ventured on without Stefan, facing something far more sinister than the Parasites.  But for how long will he stay dead?  Horror for later.
1. Rainy Return

So, I know that this is _not _an Artemis Fowl story, but what can you do when you've got something you want to show to people but you have nowhere to put it? So please don't nag at me about that. I love Artemis Fowl and everything, too!

**Summary: **One year later, and the Supernaturalists have trekked on without Stefan, only to be bombarded by a new enemy; something a little more sinister than the old Parasites. But for how long will Stefan stay gone? StefanOC (but it's not stupid, I swear)

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any of the characters or locations, except perhaps the obvious ones in later chapters.

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**"Rainy Return"**

It was a rare day in the City of the Future.

Rain tumbled from hovering, grey cotton clouds. People had wandered from their box-like homes, buildings, and buses to look up at the natural-looking sky. There were no odd colors mixed with the neutral grey, no whistling and howling of the dangerous and poisonous winds tucked away.

No. It was pure rain—at least as pure as it got in the Big Pig. Which, as a matter of fact, was not acid rain.

In a certain warehouse on a specific Abracadabra Street, this sparked excitement and thrill.

And for a certain boy named Cosmo Hill, he found a special promise in this natural miracle.

Cosmo looked from the tall window and back in the corner adjacent to where he stood. He moved his thin hand away from the black curtain, letting it hide the window. Sitting in the small kitchen area was Ditto, who was quietly reading the holographic news and drinking a cup of coffee. This sight was odd in two respects: it was the middle of the afternoon, and Ditto resembled a toddler. Cosmo laughed lightly. A kid drinking coffee and reading a newspaper.

Mona stood at the stove cooking something in a pot, stirring, stopping, stirring. She had her back turned to Cosmo, her thick black hair hanging by her cheek.

"It's raining," Cosmo aptly said as he sat in the chair across from Ditto.

Ditto pointed at the holographic news with his large blue eyes, drinking his coffee. He set the cup down and nodded. "I'm reading all about it," he said. He glanced up at the high ceiling, to the pricking sounds of rain on the roof. "And I can hear it."

Cosmo lazily nodded and slouched in his chair, laying his head on the table. No one said anything for several minutes, only a solemn silence standing in the warehouse's corner, looking at the floor with the same despair as the three friends.

Abruptly, the sound of Mona throwing her stirring spoon from her hands and into the pot disrupted the room. Ditto looked up and Cosmo jumped in his chair. They look in her direction, startled.

She was hunched over the oven, a hand over her face. Her shoulders were gently shaking. "What's wrong?" Cosmo softly asked.

"What's wrong…?" Mona mumbled, her voice choked. She turned back to the two, her eyes floating in tears. "What's wrong, Cosmo? Are you actually asking me what's wrong?" She didn't wait for an answer, moving menacingly close to Cosmo. She threw her hand in the direction of the window Cosmo had been daydreaming out of. "It has been one year, you two. One year," she let it sink in, her eyes wild. "One year ago _today_ that Stefan died. And what are we doing?" She let her hand fall to her side. "Absolutely nothing."

Ditto slammed his coffee cup on the table. The hologram shivered and the black liquid jumped onto the table. "What are you expecting us to do, Mona? We have no where to go to honor him, per say. There is nowhere for us to go for him," Ditto shouted. Then he laughed sarcastically. "Would you like to go back to Faustino's—"

"Shut up, Ditto!" Mona cried, covering her ears. "Shut up!"

"Stefan is dead," Ditto spat out. He stared at her. "One day, we have got to come to _real_ terms and accept it. Stefan will never walk through these doors again and we will never speak to him again," Ditto stopped and realized what he was saying; that he was not only speaking to Mona and Cosmo, but to himself as well. The anger shattered from his face, revealing his raw broken hear. "And… that's horrible. It's so unfair."

Then, a laugh chimed the warehouse walls. While the sound resonated throughout the building and it seemed to come from the warehouse itself, the echo faded down to the dark quiet corner with the staircase door.

"Unfair," the voice said. A man, young. Familiar? "Unfair is such an interesting word."

Mona had quickly swallowed her sobbing and was suddenly holding a lightning rod. "Who are you?"

"Whoa, don't shoot, Tex," said the man. He stepped forward from the shadows slightly. "I think that if you shot that at me, you'd be pretty mad at yourself. And so would our friends."

"Sure about that?" Retorted Mona, her grip tightening on the rod, disregarding the stranger's grammatical hints. "Because as far as I'm concerned, you're an intruder and I'm entitled to shooting you without any regrets."

"An intruder to _what_?" The young man said. "Because, Mona Lisa Vasquez, as far as _I'm_ concerned, this is _my_ warehouse and _you're_ intruding on it."

And that's when the shadowed man stepped out and everyone got one good look at the familiar Russian face.

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Fun! Who could this Russian _be_?! I do not know… 

Read and review, please!

Have a good day,

Storm


	2. The How, Where, and the Who

Here we are again, part two! New character, so be prepared?

I appreciated the reviews, by the way! It got more feedback and interest than I'd really been anticipating. Haha But, um… keep reviewing! I'd like 5 to 10 before I update the third chapter… and trust me, you'll want me to update the third chapter after what happens there.

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**"The How, Where, and the Who"**

The lightning rod clattered to the ground like a forgotten child's toy, and Mona backed against the oven. Her shaking hand rose to her mouth. "S-Stefan?"

"The one and only," Stefan said, walking closer to his friends. Cosmo couldn't tell if there was actual smile on his face, or his scar playing tricks on his eyes.

"Where did you come from?" Ditto asked, taking on Mona's forgotten role. "And aren't you—"

"Supposed to be dead?" Stefan finished nonchalantly , sitting in his usual chair at the table. "That's kind of what I said when I found out I was still alive."

"And how did this come about?" Ditto questioned, closing his holographic newspaper. "How long have you been 'alive' and why have you been hiding out from us?"

Stefan leaned forward, which drew the three Supernaturalists' attention like a taut rope; even Mona, who clambered over her shock and shifted mental gears. His large hands were square on the table, like he was about to hash out a plan of action, like he used to do every night. "When I was 'killed' back at that lab, I wasn't killed. And when the Parasites swarmed me and took my pain, they didn't take it. In fact, they did just the opposite," His dark eyes lifted, illuminated for once. "They _gave_ me life."

For a moment, the three absorbed the cryptic message. Then Cosmo waved it away like fog. "Okay. What now?"

They couldn't help but laugh. Stefan reached over and shoved Cosmo's shoulder, while he blankly looked at his friends, perplexed as to why they were laughing and why he wasn't. Mona nudged his shoulder and laughed. "Don't worry about it, Cosmo."

"But in all seriousness," Stefan continued. "When I 'died', I had in fact been given life when they swarmed me. And it was like a computer: too much information overload and I crashed… but only temporarily and only to… charge me up."

Mona sat in her chair and put her bony elbows on the table. "Well, that explains the whole death thing, but where were you that whole time? That whole _year_?"

Stefan leaned back a little and made eye contact with each of his comrades, silently, as if he were addressing each of them personally. Then he pulled back farther and looked at the ceiling, thought tracing his face. "Humans are really interesting, in case you didn't know that. In our time, we so frequently write ourselves off as heathens and wretches that just devour the world and everything left of it. But if you really look at it and really know what being a human is, it's not like that," Stefan said. He smirked at the faces of his friends, who were trying to decipher his message. "When I was 'dead', I was like that for quite some time. How long I'm not sure, but I'd say about eight or nine months. I'd wake up for moments at a time, and I was in this… I don't even know… just a place, a room, and I had someone taking care of me."

"Who?" Interjected Ditto.

Stefan shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. But all I know is that she always wore this mask. Think back to the old drama masks that depicted sadness and happiness. She always wore that. And every time, it would change. She would ask was I happy or sad that day."

Cosmo's eyebrows rose. "It was a girl?"

Stefan nodded, and Mona tilted her head. "And she just… took care of you?"

"Yeah," Stefan said. "That time period where being conscious was few and far between lasted for those eight or nine months. Then I was finally conscious for most of the time. But I never could get out of the bed and just leave or at least figure it out. I'd been injected with a sedative or I just couldn't get up because of what had happened to me; I don't know. The room was a dark red color with picture frames turned around and a window across the bed from me," He looked toward the walls. "So I just stayed.

"Then I woke up in front of our warehouse, just out in the pouring rain. I looked around and saw the girl with the smiling mask on and she told me to go on in, that I would find her eventually. I turned back to the warehouse, looked to where she was, but she was already gone," Stefan looked around the dark warehouse. "And here I am now."

No one spoke for several minutes, the storm outside growing more violent. Stefan leaned back in his chair and looked at the three Supernaturalists through the hair hanging in his eyes, a smirk suddenly playing on his lips behind his fisted hand over his mouth. "So, anything new with you guys?"

Mona stood up and laughed, facing the window. "Are you being serious, or sarcastic?"

"Quite serious, Mona."

"Well," Mona began with a sigh. "Where to begin?"

Ditto picked up for her. "While we don't worry so much about the Parasites anymore, we do have something new we're seeing more and more."

Stefan leaned forward, the wheels in his head beginning to spin. "Really? Tell me."

Alternating, Ditto, Mona, and Cosmo told about the Nightmares and how they took hold of people and tore at them, throwing them into what looked like seizures to those who couldn't see them. They were like small children clothed in black that separated themselves from the shadows of the night or any dark room. Ditto painfully told that the only thing any of them could do was watch helplessly as they Nightmares took hold of their victims and how later, in every news report, they were later pronounced dead from traumatic seizures.

"We don't even know where to begin with these creatures," Mona said, tiresome. "We know they're afraid of light—"

"How do you figure this?" Stefan asked, his eyes wide with thought.

"They've tried to come in our warehouse, but we can fend them off with flashlights, but it doesn't destroy them," Cosmo said. He held up a flashlight that was on the floor by the table. "We keep them everywhere, and keep all the entrances well lit up from the inside."

Stefan nodded in understanding. "I wondered why the stairwell was so bright," He rubbed his forehead and set his face in his hands. "I don't know where to begin, either, until I actually see them," Stefan looked toward the curtained window, deep in dazed thought. "We could try the lightning rods on them, but I don't know that that would do anything except fill them with light, which they seem to be scared of…"

Cosmo looked at Mona and Ditto, and shared their smiled. Stefan was back.

---------

The Neon District.

Stefan's mother had talked quite a bit about this district of Satellite City where actors, dancers, and artists lived. She had promised him a visit to the District on a weekend the two shared off, because she said the District "had to be taken in and not just walked through". Stefan has anticipated this visit, but they never had the chance.

And here he was, walking through the Neon District on a misty afternoon without his mother. But it wasn't for the sights and tourism of it; he was here on a mission from Ditto. After tediously charting the Nightmares attacks on citizens, the "hot spot" was this district in the darker streets that didn't quite live up to the Neon part of its name.

However, Stefan found that it was difficult to keep focused on Nightmares and flitting shadows when he was passing odd-looking people ready for performances, street side musicians, and the eye-catching store windows. He pulled his black coat closer around his broad shoulders as the blowing mist stuck to his shirt and arms, chilling him.

For the first time in a long time, as he walked down the colorful streets, he found himself wanting to reach out and talk to people, as opposed to his usual indifference and disgust. Many people he casually passed smiled at him like he had been a long time friend, and some even uttered a greeting of "Hey!" or "Hello!" And every now and then, he would return the gesture or smile.

After dizzily roaming the District with nothing to show for it, he found himself stepping inside a dark café with quiet music playing and a few people sitting at the wooden tables.

"Hello, and welcome to the Rose Tinted Café!" Stefan looked up from taking his jacket off to see a young woman dressed in a black skirt and white button up shirt with an apron over it. She smiled at him and lifted his jacket from his fingers, hanging it on a hook near the door. "My name's Scout, and I will be your waitress this afternoon. Would you like a table or a booth, sir?"

"Um," Stefan said, blushing. "A booth, I suppose."

Scout the waitress smiled, and turned to face the rest of the café. "Right this way," She led him through tables and low key conversations to a small booth lit by a tiny lamp. He slid into the booth and looked up at her, taking in her appearance.

She had long brown hair with large and gentle curls, which were pinned back from her porcelain face. Her slender hand pulled a menu from the front pocket of her apron, setting it in front of Stefan. Adorning her wrist was a small diamond bracelet and on her finger, a large yellow gemstone ring. Stefan had never seen actual gemstones and the question slipped. "Are those actual jewels?"

Scout saw he was looking at her hands and held them closer to his face. "They are," she said. "They were a gift my mother gave me not too long ago. It's kind of like a family heirloom, if you can believe that tradition still exists," She let out a small laugh, drew back her hand just as Stefan considered grabbing it to examine the ring and bracelet, and pulled out a notepad and pen from a pocket. She lifted her head from the notepad, her brown eyes sparkling. "Can I start you off with something to drink?"

Stefan glanced at the menu and back up at her. "Um, I'm not sure what there is to order…"

The pad and pen disappeared, and Scout was leaning close to Stefan, the menu opened to the center. A lacy scent of warm roses flushed his senses. "Well, let me help you with that," she said. She scanned the menu with her finger, underlining words. "It depends on what you'd like. See, you look like a regular coffee guy to me," She leaned back, much to Stefan's dismay. "But I could be wrong."

"I've been drinking a lot of sim coffee lately, and that's getting old," Stefan said, her personality catching onto him.

"I understand completely," she said. "I'm partial to the Rosemary Milk mix, if you like a sweet and classy taste."

Stefan shrugged. "I'll take your word for it."

Scout pulled her notepad out and wrote his order down. "Anything else? Or would you like me to leave you alone and let you look?"

"I think I'm good for right now," Stefan said, flipping a page in the menu.

Scout nodded and smiled. "Alright, I'll be back with that in a minute." And she disappeared.

It took Stefan several dessert descriptions before he realized…

That that cheerful voice that discussed jewelry and coffee…

Was the same caring voice that asked about his happiness and health.

Stefan's nonchalance melted away into anxiety and a quiet fear. He jumped at the clinking of a coffee cup in front of him, the yellow jewel glinting in his eye. He looked up and saw Scout over him, looking down at the steaming cup. She made a slow eye contact with him, and smiled.

She knew he knew.

Yet, she didn't say a word about it.

"If I were you, I wouldn't put any sweetener in this coffee," she said, matter-of-factly. "It'll mask that unique taste it has."

_Mask_.

"Oh…" Stefan choked out.

Scout smiled at him. "I don't quite recognize you," she said. "Are you from the Neon District?"

Stefan shook his head. "I live over on Abracadabra."

"Oh, really?" She said. "With the Vegas people, huh?" She drew her hand to her forehead and held her jeweled arm in front of him, as if she were a psychic telling his fortune. "Let me guess; the City proclaimed you a magician."

Stefan let out a stifled laugh. "No, not exactly."

"So what brought you all the way from Vegas to Neon?"

"I don't know," Stefan lied. "I've heard a lot about the performances here and the culture."

Scout nodded, tilting her head. "Yeah, the only problem with that is, is you've got to watch out for the people that mask their identities and who they are, acting like someone else."

_Mask_.

"A lot of people here try to hide who they are," Scout said darkly. "But if you're interested in the performances here, you should come check out the play next weekend, _You_. It's about a group of people that start out normal, but by the end of the play, all the actors are wearing masks of each other and acting like twisted versions of one another. It takes you real deep into sanity and insanity. You'll be questioning yourself by the end of it," Scout smiled at him again. "I'm in it."

_Mask._

"It sounds good." Stefan said, stirring his coffee.

Scout smiled at him, raising her eyebrows. "Well, if you need anything, I'll be in the room somewhere. If you want to place another order, let me know…" She leaned dangerously close and placed her thin hand on Stefan's tensed arm. "…Stefan Bashkir."

Stefan quickly glanced up, drawing back. His eyes widened, searching the dark for Scout's face. Her eyes pulled him in. She leaned her head to the side, smiling. "Are you happy or sad, Stefan?" She pulled back and tapped the table with her finger. "Your Rosemary Milk mix is on me," Turning away, she winked at him. "Come back and visit me, okay?"

Scout disappeared once more into the darkness, leaving Stefan dazed. As she melted away, he noticed a small black creature forming on her shoulder. But she didn't know it.

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Yeah… we'll see what happens.  
Remember: 5 to 10 reviews pleeease! 

Have a good day,  
Storm


	3. Broken Masks

I was just waiting for those five precious reviews, yes. See, I've got all the way up to Chapter 7 written but I won't post them if no one is reading them! Am I terrible person? No, I don't think so. :D

This one is short, but I'd like to think intense.

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**"Broken Masks"**

Stefan burst into the warehouse, his black hair sticking to his cheeks and forehead and his arms dripping water. Ditto looked up from the computer screen that cast a sickly green hue on his child's face, but his smiling face soon contrasted it.

"What is Mr. Bashkir in such a frenzy over?"

Stefan marched to the table and sat down. Mona and Cosmo soon appeared at the table from workbenches, their hands greasy and sore from repairing weapons. Stefan held his head in his hands, kneading his forehead. "I found her."

Mona raised her eyebrows. "Oh, did you? Well, why didn't you bring the lady of choice to the palace?"

Stefan looked up and shot her a look of warning. "I found the girl that took care of me when I was away," He looked back down at the plastic table. "The one with the masks…"

"Why are you so upset about it then? Shouldn't you be happy?" Ditto asked.

"She had a Nightmare on her shoulder," Stefan said painfully, as he ran his fingers through his hair. He picked up the silence before it took its course. "And I'm not going to let it take a hold of her when I can stop it," Stefan jumped up from the table, pacing the cold floor. "There's got to be a way…"

Mona glanced at Ditto and Cosmo a look of amusement, in which it was returned. "So, are you interested in a girl, Stefan?"

Stefan halted in his steps, his boots harshly slamming against the concrete. His eyes narrowed and he seemed to grow a foot taller. "Mona, this is not about whether or not I'm interested in her. It's that for once someone took my life in their hands and protected and cared for me. And now that person is threatened, and I'm going to protect them in return."

Ditto held his hands out in front of him. "Okay, let's slow this down. Who is she? What is her name, what does she look like?"

"Her name is Scout," Stefan said. "She works at the Rose Tinted Café in the Neon District. She looks like she's about twelve, but when she starts talking, you can tell she's around my age. Um, she's small… brown wavy hair, pale skin."

Mona sat down in her chair, framing a square with her hands on the tabletop. "Okay, plan: tomorrow, we are going to go down to the Neon District and find this girl and see if she's in any major trouble—"

"If there's a Nightmare sitting on her shoulder, I'd say that's trouble," Stefan said.

"That's a good point," Cosmo said. "I mean, here we have a perfect shot at trying to get rid of a Nightmare, or at least figuring something out. I think we should take hold of this opportunity."

"So," Mona continued. "We're going to go to that café and see if she's there. What then?"

It was then that a loud alarm rang out in the warehouse. Ditto frantically navigated the computer screen to the video cameras surrounding the warehouse's exterior. He leaned back, his eyes widening. "Stefan…"

"Yeah?"

"Is this that girl?"

Stefan hovered over Ditto's shoulder, watching the screen. He stepped back quickly. "Where's a lightning rod?"

Cosmo went back to his workbench with Stefan close behind him. Cosmo picked up a rod and held it in front of Stefan. "We fixed a few of them, but we aren't sure—"

Stefan snatched it from his fingers and grabbed some cartridges, stuffing them in his damp pockets. "Come on, guys. Get a rod."

"What's going on?" Mona asked, going through the familiar routine or preparation.

Stefan was standing by the elevator, his hands yanking the grille open. "They've got her downstairs. The Nightmares."

---------

The elevator rolled down the shaft slowly and loudly. Stefan held onto the bars of the elevator, tightening his grip anxiously and tapping his fingers on the bars. He glanced behind him. "You guys remember how to use these rods, don't you?"

Cosmo held the weapon in front of him, uneasily. "Yeah, I do."

The elevator ground to a halt and Stefan ripped the gate open once the elevator stopped. "Come on, guys, don't wait around," he ran out of the elevator and through the garage to the door at the end. As he approached the door, the screaming of Scout became louder and louder, which threw him in more of a frenzy. "Scout! Scout! Hold on!" He threw the garage door open and was back out in the rain, which had grown from a light mist to a heavy downfall in the night.

In the alley and through the rain, the Supernaturalists could see a moving mass of black and the occasional flash of flailing arms and legs. The screaming was accented with a gurgling sound from the black mass, which seemed to grow with every movement.

Stefan charged toward the mass, and fired the lightning rod into the mass.

And amazingly, it blasted through the black cloud, uncovering a terrified Scout. She looked in the direction of the blast and saw Stefan and the Supernaturalists, who were all firing at the tangle of black. Stefan reached down to her, trying to pull her out of the mess, but the Nightmares sucked her back in, multiplying in their efforts.

"Scout! We're going to get you out!" Stefan yelled out, firing shots into the mass, kicking the black creatures out of the way as the others shot into them, eliminating the mass with each shot and round. Stefan threw his lightning rod aside when he found that he was out of cartridges and began shoving the creatures aside to his comrades.

The tangle had melted to smoky strands of black which coiled into the night sky, disappearing. Lying on the cold ground was an unconscious Scout and cloth bag hanging from her arm. Stefan knelt down, shaking with fear, and felt her neck for a pulse. He released a breath, saying, "She's still alive…" as he picked her small doll-like frame up in his arms. He looked at his comrades. "Let's get her inside. I think she'll be okay."

"What about this?" Mona asked, holding the cloth bag up.

Stefan looked over his shoulder at it, and turned around in curiosity. "What's in it?"

Mona peered in the bag and sifted through it. She looked up at Stefan. "Two broken masks."

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Wanna try for ten reviews? Maybe. Just let me know what you think, that's all I ask! 


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